


alley encounter

by nonbinarywithaknife (littleboxes)



Series: me sobbing about critical role [55]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Other, Over Protective, POV Second Person, Threats of Violence, but meh?, some might say, sometimes you gotta threaten a person to the point of fleeing in a dark alleyway, the mighty nein are very protective of those they care about
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-12-26 01:52:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18273389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleboxes/pseuds/nonbinarywithaknife
Summary: you have a fun talk with an interesting lady- nila, at a bar. you run into- someone- somethings- in the alley on the way home.





	alley encounter

**Author's Note:**

> I was tagged in a prompt by @twinvax and i delivered:  
> Prompt: Nila being a literal Mom friend to the Mighty Nein (Beau could use a positive female role model who isn't beating her, Nott could use someone to mother her, etc). Bonus if the Nein are super protective of Nila in the background (Beau intercepting bad guys before they get close to her in fights, diverting sketchy dudes from trying to hit on her in bars, so on)

You’re sitting at the bar, nursing a drink, when there’s a shadow cast over you. You look up and there’s a- a person, a furry person? Who’s several feet taller than you, even as they (she?) sit down. You’re pretty sure it’s a lady, and she’s wearing robes? with lots of layers, and feathers of a sort around her neck, and when she speaks, it’s in a soft voice.

 

She asks the bartender for a- milk? You do a double take. The bartender looks just as confused, Who on earth orders milk at a bar? In Shadycreek Run, no less? But coin’s coin, and the elf just shakes their head and says they’ll look. You only realize you’ve been staring too long when the lady turns to you, a vaguely happy look on her face. “Hello,” she says, in that same soft voice, and actually she’s kinda cute? She’s got wavy black hair that stops at her shoulders, and her soft looking ears flop downwards.

 

You smile, and try to look her up and down subtly. “Hey there. I haven’t seen you around?”

 

She doesn’t seem to notice, and smiles at your response. “Oh no, I don’t live here, I’m merely visiting my friends. I am Nila, you are?”

 

You make pleasant conversation for, quite a while, actually, longer than you normally would with a stranger. But there’s something about Nila, and you’re sad when she stands.

 

“It was lovely speaking with you, but I must be going back now.”

 

You watch her go out, and then down the rest of your drink. After a few minutes, you decide to leave. No point in staying any longer, and you’d rather not get drunk in a tavern full of strangers. It’s easy enough to get stabbed in this town, should at least make ‘em work for it. You slap some coin down on the counter and amble out, heading down the alleys to the shack you call home at the moment.

 

You get halfway there when you start to feel eyes on you. You pause, look around the alley- the sun set a while ago, the darkness just beginning to set in. There’s hardly any noise but the usual ambience of the ‘Run. You shake it off and keep moving, telling yourself it’s nothing. Probably just the drinks taking their toll, or the paranoia naturally bred into every resident of this shithole.

 

Then there’s a noise, a shifting of the bins stacked high against the rough brick walls. You can feel your heart start to beat faster, you tell yourself, It’s just an animal, probably, nothing to get worked up about. Still, a hand drifts to the daggers at you hip.

 

You’re about ten minutes from home when you see them. Two sets of glowing yellow eyes, staring directly at you. You freeze, blinking once, thinking it’s just the light, but-

 

No. There are two sets of yellow, unblinking eyes boring into you. You’re so distracted by this horrifying development, that you don’t hear the footsteps until it’s too late. There’s a clawed hand on your shoulder, and the whispers of a demon in your ear. You can just barely see the horned shadow in the rising moonlight, and the sharp claws dig into your shoulder. The voice is cold, too cold, the infernal words twisting their way into you, making you feel empty, frozen.

 

Then, a thump, as a figure drops from the skies in front of you. You can’t make anything out, a hood masking their features. They stalk towards you, a threatening surety in their movements. You can feel yourself shaking, now. _Who could I have pissed_ _off?_ you think, _I haven’t done a job in months!_

 

The two pairs of eyes have disappeared, and for some reason that only fills you with dread, rather than relief. You flinch, when out of nowhere, a crossbow bolt embeds itself in the wall behind you. You can feel blood running down your ear. You try to stumble backwards, but the demon has a sharp hold on you, and makes a sound almost like a chuckle.

 

You can’t help a frightened whimper, and from the shadows there comes more laughter, two voices. The yellow eyes have reappeared, attached to a shadow only visible because of the green energy come from one hand. You can feel the hollowness of the magic from here- it feels wrong, like a void, a horrible sucking feeling as if everything inside you is just waiting to be spilled. Beside it, a flame springs into existence, the orange flames flickering menacingly. The man’s face is mostly shadows, stretching and bending with the fire, contorting into something monstrous, as the flames lick around his hand, up his arms. He doesn’t even flinch, eyes staring directly into yours.

 

Finally, the hooded being comes to a stop in front of you. They put a calloused hand under your jaw, and jerk your face roughly up. Their hand starts to clench around your neck, but stops short of suffocation.

 

“If you hurt Nila in any way, shape, or form, you’ll live to regret it,” they say, voice rough and filled with malicious promise. Your eyes are blown wide, and you desperately search their face for any hint of humanity. There is none, only large black pupils where eyes should be.

 

“We’ll all make sure of that.”

 

The fire and magic are snuffed out, and by the time your senses come back to you, they’re gone. You walk hesitantly forward, emboldened by the lack of response. As you make it home, you try to rationalize it, a hallucination brought on by some sort of food poisoning? Shady Creek hardly has the highest food safety standards. Yes, yes, nothing to be worried about, just your imagination.

 

Except, as you shakily pull out a key and open your door, you make the mistake of looking up, the hair on your neck prickling. There are silhouettes crouching on your roof, faces nothing but shadow, staring at you. They don’t move, unnaturally still, until you shake yourself out of it and rush inside. You don’t sleep that night, lighting every candle you can find and staring fearfully outside your window.

 

The next day, you book it out of Shady Creek Run. You take the shitty guard job you’d turned down yesterday- dirt pay be damned, anything is worth it to get out. A month, surely a month is long enough that you’ll be forgotten by the- the demons you’ve inadvertently angered.

 

No pretty bar companion is worth that, soft voice or not.

**Author's Note:**

> never actually written anything in second person before, feedback is appreciated as always


End file.
